My pick of the day

LAC + 1

 to all

Agreed

Brother, Tonight feels like one of those games everyone swears will define something. Not because it actually will, but because one fanbase desperately needs it to. The building is loud early, almost rehearsed, like confidence borrowed instead of earned. Every made shot gets a roar, every miss an excuse already forming. You can feel how badly they want control of the narrative before the game even gives it.

On the floor, the stars announce themselves quickly. Kawhi Leonard moves with that familiar calm, hitting shots that look inevitable the moment he rises. John Collins attacks the glass like it’s a personal vendetta. The home crowd feeds off it, convinced this is what authority looks like. Meanwhile, Joel Embiid doesn’t rush anything. He takes contact, takes space, takes his time. Tyrese Maxey plays faster than everyone else without looking like he’s trying to prove it. Different approaches. Same scoreboard.

As the game drags on, the cracks start to show , not in the score, but in the reactions. A missed rotation leads to hands thrown up. A whistle sparks conversations with refs that last just a beat too long. Big shots come, but they need to be answered, and that’s where things start to feel fragile. Philly doesn’t argue. They just inbound the ball and go right back to work.

By the third quarter, the noise changes. Still loud , just sharper. Less celebration, more demand. Every possession feels like it’s being graded. Kawhi delivers again, because of course he does, but the responses are annoying in their simplicity: free throws, cuts, extra passes. Kelly Oubre Jr. does something reckless that somehow works. Maxey slips through gaps that shouldn’t exist. VJ Edgecombe makes the kind of quiet plays that don’t trend but absolutely hurt.

The fourth quarter is where hope usually turns into truth. The crowd wants a takeover. They want something cinematic. Instead, they get patience. Embiid draws another foul. Maxey controls the pace. The lead doesn’t explode , it stabilizes. And that’s worse. Because now there’s nothing dramatic to blame. Just a slow realization that effort and confidence aren’t the same thing.

And when the game finally ends, the truth is unavoidable, no matter how creatively it’s explained away: the 76ers win. Not because the other side didn’t have moments. Not because the stars disappeared. But because when it was time to actually decide the game, Philly didn’t need miracles or momentum swings. They just needed possessions — and they handled them better.

The postgame takes will be predictable. “It was closer than it looked.” “A few shots go differently.” “On another night…” But tonight was the night. And when it mattered, one team treated it like business ,, while the other treated it like a promise that never quite came due.

Mark my words